Aria Etemad, Ford, euroFOT: European large-scale Field Operational Test on Active Safety Systems

www.eurofot-ip.eu

euroFOT:European Large Scale Field Operational Test on In-Vehicle Systems

Bringing Intelligent Vehicles to the Road

Giancarlo Alessandretti, Angelos Amditis, Aria Etemad, Christoph Kessler

Stockholm, ITS 2009

www.eurofot-ip.eu2 ITS 2009 Stockholm

Contents

• The euroFOT projectObjectives, functions, expected results

• Highlights for on-going activitiesResearch hypothesesData acquisition Design of experimentOperation of Vehicle Management CentresData analysis plan

• Lesson learnt and conclusions


Why EuroFOT?

• Intelligent Vehicles have a large potential for safer, cleaner and more efficient transport solutions

• Technologies are mature (several examples in series production)

• However, we have limited data on real-life operation and how drivers use the systems in ordinary traffic

• This restricts our capabilities to improve the systems, understand their impacts and make the right decisions for deployment


euroFOT Objectives• Perform multiple coordinated tests of Intelligent

Vehicle Systems with ordinary drivers in real traffic

• Investigate performance, driver behaviour and user acceptance

• Assess the impacts on safety, efficiency and the environment, based on road data


euroFOT Objectives (2)• Consolidate a common European approach for FOTs • Improve public awareness on the potentialities of

driver support functions


Functions under test


Exposures in different FOTs

Nr. vehicles1 10 100 1000

4

8

12

16

0

FOT

dura

tion

(mon

ths)

100 car2004

Ass.driverNL_2006

RDCW – 2005ACAS2004

Australia2005

ICC 1997

Mach2005

Freightliner 2001

Volvo trucks

Isa_UK2007

EuroFOT

euroFOT-trucks only

trucks

cars

Within euroFOT:~18,5 Mil. kmWithin euroFOT:~18,5 Mil. km


The challenges....

• Wide range of driving conditions • Extraction of meaningful use cases / driving scenarios

for the equipment under test• Transferable and harmonized methods Europe-wide• Data quality assurance • Privacy and legal issues


.... and the euroFOT approach

• Well developed ADAS and sensors on vehicles• Reliable Data Acquisition systems based on partners’

experience • Harmonised research questions / hypotheses for all

fleets • Common definition of scenarios

and performance indicators: specific approaches when necessary

• Framework of guidelines for the operation of the different Vehicle Management Centres


Project plan


Highligths for on-going activities


Harmonised requirements for systems and functions

The FESTA methodology has been applied:• Approx. 250 hypotheses examined• 84 hypotheses prioritised• Main relevance: 44% safety, 46% driver, 10% environment• 5 Combinations of functions


Research Questions & Hypotheses (example)• A research question is general, and has a question mark:

Does FCW decrease incidents?

• Hypotheses are either true or falseFCW reduces occurence of decelerations above 5 m/s2

• Hypotheses can only be tested by means of reasonable indicators

• Hypotheses are statistically testable

• euroFOT examined >100 hypotheses for FCW/ACC(only top-hypotheses selected)


Data Acquisition SystemsThree types of Data Acquisition Systems are considered:

• CAN only basic functionality for vehicle data and GPS• CAN + video cameras will record both the road and

the driver • CAN + video + extra sensors some vehicles equipped

with radar/lidar, head/eye trackers and other sensing devices

ECUECU

Vehicle CAN bus

OBDconnector

GPS & GPRS Antennas multipurpose camera

radar

accelerometer

OR

Standard with vehicleMandatory part of the instrumentation (data)Optional part of the instrumentation

ECUECU

data logger

ECUECUECUECU


Data Acquisition Systems

Some specific issues:

• Data enrichment by maps• Protection of proprietary data• Encryption of tha data• Driver annotation interface• Possibility of audio recording• Triggered logging• Synchronisation with GPS


Design of experiment Drivers•Represent as much as possible the population of buyers•Professional drivers in the case of trucks•Perfomance compared with and without the system (Baseline)•Control group introduced for several functions

Vehicles•According to the present EU market, technical feasibility and interests of manufacturers•Middle+top class cars, heavy trucks

Environment• Specific events defined (e.g: overtaking manoeuvre)• Situation variables specified (e.g: weather, visibility, driver

status)• Performance indicators are the basis for the overall evaluation

(e.g: mean speed, mean time headway, frequency of braking,…)


Eventsovertakingmanoeuvre

Scenarioovertaking in day light in low

traffic on rural road …

For euroFOT:• 25 events selected / 27 situation variables• 81 performance indicators• About 110 corresponding measures

Events and situation variablesweather

(e. g. rain)

traffic(e. g. low volume)

lighting(e. g. day light)

road type(e. g. rural road)

vehicle occupancy(e. g. 1 passenger)


VMC Operations Center

MaintenanceMaintenance SalesSales Operation Center

+ HOT LINE

Operation Center

+ HOT LINE

Vehicles Drivers

Data pick-up method

Data storagemethod

Data ServerData Server

Data pick-up method

Data storagemethod

FOT Operations Data

FOT Operations Data

Data storagemethod

Driver liaison during FOT

Data/Operational Quality Assurance

ContractConsent formIncentivesInsurance

Questions / support

Training

Objective data Subjective dataIntervention logging / Documentation

Some of the aspects which required a special attention:


Data analysis plan...

VMC-Fleet

SQL Database

CO-, CV-, CV+E-data

VMC-Specific Common

Questionnaires

Data Analysis

Data quality analysis

Data quality analysis

Data processingData processing

Data qualityanalysis

Data qualityanalysis

PI‐calculationPI‐calculation

Data miningData mining Testing of VMC

specific hyp

othe

ses

Testing of VMC

specific hyp

othe

ses

Global assessmentGlobal

assessment

Testing of commonhypotheses

Testing of commonhypotheses

QualityassessmentQuality

assessment

Cost Benefit Analysis

VMC

leve

l


Data volumes: data acquisition & processing

103

106

109

1012

ON-BOARD OFF-BOARD

VEHICLE

FLEET(ONE VMC)

PROJECT

EVENTSEVENT

STATISTICS

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

DATA BASES

Nr.

of d

ata

Mass storage

Reconstruction and analysis


euroFOT network International collaboration

• An effective international cooperation is in place

• The main objective is to share methodologies for the design and operation of FOTs

• Focus on:Design of ExperimentsSynchronisation of performance indicatorsCommon tools for analysisComparison of results

• EuroFOT is also contributing to the definition of a common language


Selected lesson learnt / conclusive remarks

• Use specific hypotheses; Prioritize hypotheses; Consider also combinations of functions

• Define a sound data analysis plan, focused on quality (events, metrics)

• Include baseline conditions • Define methods for safety analysis (crashes will be a rare,

hopefully absent event) • Anticipate how to deal with operational aspects (e.g: maintenance,

assistance to drivers, subjects drop-outs,…)• Plan pilot tests for a feedback on specifications and a check on

technical / organisational aspects


The Consortium


Project coordinator: Aria Etemad FORD Research & Advanced Engineering Europe Email: [email protected]

Business

Aria Etemad, Ford, euroFOT: European large-scale Field Operational Test on Active Safety Systems